I'm a total noob when it comes to this kind of stuff but basically I'm looking to start very small and learn as I go to see what works best. I've been lurking around the forums and doing some reading seems like with a little drive and work it can be a nice little side job to make supplemental income I realize you dont get rich overnight so I tried to be realistic with my initial goals $50-100/wk would be nice to start out does this sound realistic? Is clickbank as a good affiliate program to start out with? Any words of advice/lessons learned when you were first starting out is appreciated Thanks
I would suggest Maxbounty or Azoogle both are great CPA networks with good AM's and good payout. Do small steps. try tweak try tweak and dont give up.... many people giveup to easy as you will probably lose money at first but thats part of the learning experience.
since you're just starting out, promote what you know, not what other people supposedly make money with. if you've got a hobby promote the stuff for your hobby, you'll be passionate about it and it will come off in your ads.
I expect to lose some money at first but thats why I want to start small so at least I can learn from my mistakes before jumping deeper into it
This may sound like a stupid question but how does a CPA work I understand you get paid for each completed action but do I need my own website/product or is it I'm promoting someone else's product?
You do not need a website to promote the advertisers. Visit http://affliateprograms.blogspot.com/ and get a free ebook and start reading. I would also recommend Clickbooth. They have good offers to start with good payout.
Just an ideea: try contacting some people from different networks (you will find some of them around here ) and see who is opened to work with a beginner
You are promoting someone else's product, you will get paid for ever lead or sale generated through your link.
That's actually some of the best advice I've ever heard for a newb starting out in affiliate marketing. Most of the time, people just start spewing "You should get into xxxxxx market", or "There's no money in that niche, you should sell stuff for this niche". Great post, motheninja! Added rep.
Best advice is to start a website (yes, on something you're passionate about ) and build your traffic before you start to place ads. There's lots of ways for you to earn, a few people recommended our MaxBounty.com and yes we're willing to work with newbies, but please understand that for best results you'd need a website suited for CPA campaigns. Depending on your site, you might find success in CPM ads, perhaps you'll be great with Adsense. Try it all and see what fits, but know that not all ad models work well with all websites. A quick and very general guide on where to aim your advertising attempts... - If your website is textually rich in content, Adsense will probably do you well. (Like if you're printing articles, advice, blogging, etc) - If your website's model is almost solely geared to sending surfers to other websites, CPA is for you. (Like freebie websites, incentive programs, link websites, etc). As well as if your website runs a frequently-mailed email newsletter. - If your model reviews products, and is perhaps centered around a list of all products of a matching theme (like say MP3 players), or all products from a given store... CPS (per sale) programs are up your alley. Go with Shareasale or CJ.com - If your website is more image or video laden (celebrity picture sites, funny videos, etc) and you expect lots of page views per surfer, CPM ads are your best bet. There are of course exceptions, but that's generally how it goes. .
first you need to decide how are you planning to drive traffic to a site, site theme,etc. I also recommend my n00bs to promote something they know about and also to promote a merchant that people trust already like Walmart. One more thing, get yourself a good stats software that tracks clicks so you learn more about your traffic, affiliate programs, etc.